QUESTIONS OVER QANTAS

QANTAS to Push Out Airbus A380 Deliveries

What is happening at QANTAS? Is the Australian flag carrier still in trouble?

This appeared in AirwaysLive by Montague Smith.

MIAMI — According to a report from the Australian Business Traveler(AUSBT) QANTAS Airways CEO Alan Joyce said the carrier doesn’t want the remaining eight Airbus A380s on order, as the current super jumbo fleet is enough to meet the existing demand.

During the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit 2016 in Brisbane, Joyce admitted that the carrier’s intention is to “not taking those aircraft.”

Back in 2008, QANTAS was one of the first Airbus A380 customers, with an order placed for 20 aircraft. To date, 12 aircraft have been delivered. The airline has been pushing back the delivery of the remaining planes over two years now, joining other carriers including Air France, which has dropped an order for two, Air Austral, which discarded the plans to acquire two A380s previously ordered in 2009.

Virgin Atlantic, another A380 customer, has also pushed back the deliveries of six superjumbos on order. In the recent Farnborough Airshow, Virgin Group founder and figurehead Richard Branson stated at that time that the carrier is “still evaluating for the future whether or not to take delivery [of the A380s].”

Qantas operates its 484-seat A380s on routes from Sydney and Melbourne to London via Dubai, and to Hong Kong, Dallas and Los Angeles.

In its most recent forecast, Airbus predicted that 1,480 Very Large Aircraft (VLA) will be needed in the next 20 years. The airframer is still confident in the future of the superjumbo.

The recent cancellations leave Dubai-based Emirates as the main customer of the aircraft, with an order account equivalent to about 50% of the current production backlog.